Chief Arvol Looking Horse, spiritual leader of the Sioux nation, leads his people to peacefully pray near a law enforcement barricade just outside of a Dakota Access pipeline construction site.
Photograph: Stringer/Reuters

Johanna Holy Elk Face couldn’t help but chuckle. The 63-year-old Native American was one of hundreds of activists gathered to block construction of the Dakota Access pipeline on Thursday, when police with tanks and riot gear surrounded them and began making mass arrests.

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The situation was sad and frightening, she said, but there was a fleeting moment of levity when one officer on the loudspeaker warned the demonstrators not to shoot “bows and arrows”.

“We all laughed,” Holy Elk Face said, noting that she wouldn’t even know how to use a toy bow and arrow.

For some Native American activists, the officer’s comment was the latest sign that a highly militarized police force has little understanding of indigenous culture and is set on treating the protesters like violent rioters, regardless of their tactics.

The notion that the criminal justice system is biased against Native American protesters came into sharp view hours later, when a jury in Portland, Oregon, issued a verdict of not guilty for white militia leaders who staged an armed occupation of federal land to protest government policies.

The fact that protesters with guns were acquitted on the same day police arrested 141 “water protectors”, who have often relied on indigenous songs and prayers to convey their message, sparked a firestorm on social media about white privilege and police brutality against people of color.

At the Standing Rock camps in North Dakota, where the fight against the $3.8bn oil pipeline is escalating dramatically, Native Americans said the Oregon verdict was an infuriating and painful reminder that the law treats them differently – and that the odds are stacked against them in their high-stakes battle to save their land.

The Oregon and North Dakota camps both grew organically in remote rural areas. Visitors to both locations have met activists from across the US who have bonded over harsh weather conditions, mistrust of the government and fear of the police. Protesters on horseback were common sights at Malheur and Standing Rock.

In North Dakota, the Native American-led movement is grounded in the idea that the land is sacred and must be preserved. The Paiute tribe in Oregon, which historically occupied the Malheur land, vocally opposed the takeover, saying that if any group had a claim to the property, it was Native Americans.

Unlike at Standing Rock, many of the activists in Oregon were heavily armed, some openly carrying powerful assault weapons. The militiamen said that if necessary, they were prepared to defend themselves against government agents.

Police and federal officials were deliberately passive, saying they didn’t want a shootout. The FBI allowed the occupation to drag on for weeks, with numerous high-profile leaders freely leaving the refuge and returning.

When prosecutors attempted to argue in court this month that protesters had “intent” to conspire against and impede government workers, the defense pointed out that public officials had not come to the refuge and formally ordered the activists to leave.

The Standing Rock activists have declared their commitment to remaining unarmed, posting signs throughout the camps that say “NO WEAPONS”. Perhaps as a result, they have faced a much more aggressive response from law enforcement.

The local sheriff’s office has admitted to firing bean bags and deploying pepper spray, and during one high-profile confrontation private guards for the pipeline allegedly allowed dogs to attack activists.

Xhopakelxhit, a Native American activist at Standing Rock, said that arming indigenous protesters didn’t seem like a viable option.

“If native people were armed like the Bundy militia,” she said, “we would be killed.”

‘We’re treated like animals’

While Ammon Bundy left his protest site and went to a Chinese restaurant without facing any threat from police, Holy Elk Face said officers ignored her pleas to let her go without taking her into custody.

She said she was caught in the middle of a confrontation and was trying to get out of the way, but police didn’t listen.

“We’re not doing anything. We’re sitting here. We’re elderly,” she said on Saturday after her release from jail.

The plastic handcuffs hurt her wrists, but she said she was particularly disturbed that police wrote a number on her arm in marker, in an apparent effort to keep track of the many people they had brought into the local jails.

“It’s almost like the Holocaust,” she said. “I felt like we were being treated like animals.”

Nicole Taylor, a protester from the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa, said it seemed obvious to her that police would not have violently targeted the North Dakota movement if its leaders were not Native American.

Taylor said that when she sees police use violence against protesters, it sometimes makes her wish the Native Americans armed themselves. But she acknowledged the results could be disastrous: “It’d be world war three.”

Xhopakelxhit said law enforcement tactics were part of a much broader trend of mistreatment of Native Americans, noting that police killed indigenous people at an alarmingly high rate.

Jason Hopson, a 30-year-old member of the Muscogee Creek nation, said law enforcement’s recent actions had made him so enraged that it was hard not to consider whether protesters should fight back in a more substantial way.

“It’s discouraging to continue to be peaceful,” he said, adding that the acquittal of the Bundys provided further proof that an armed demonstration could be more effective.

But ultimately, Hopson said, he felt the group’s message must remain peaceful. “We want them to realize this is about their grandkids’ water,” he said.

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Some of the Oregon activists celebrating victory this week expressed support for the Native American leaders in North Dakota, saying they hoped the not guilty verdict would inspire continued resistance.

Asked about Standing Rock after his release from jail on Thursday night, the Oregon defendant David Fry said: “They need to take a look at this and realize battles can be won. They need to stay strong and not let the federal government push them around and coerce them into believing that they might be guilty.”

Angie Bundy, Ryan Bundy’s wife, said of the pipeline protests: “I’m proud of them for standing their ground.”

The Oregon and North Dakota demonstrations should both serve as a wake-up call to government officials that if they ignore citizens’ grievances, people will organize, Angie added.

“I’m just hoping that people won’t have to protest. I’m hoping the government will remember who they work for.”